I was able to see him perform last Sunday, it was awesome. Truly awesome. He’s one of the best musicians I’ve ever seen live. Very fortunately Jan 15 was the version of Music and the Spoken word just before Martin Luther King, Jr. day and they did all spirituals and gospel music. So much fun, it was great. I’m not able to embed the entire show, which is a shame but I found one of the songs they did on you tube:
And here’s another that was kinda fun:
Also I sat by a guy from BBC! He was there because they were covering Mit Romney and wanted to know more about the Mormons. I asked him if he knew Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear and he said “I see him around the office”. Ha! Oh man I want to go to a filming of Top Gear so bad.
Love change! Don’t you? It’s good stuff. The change this time is a new computer and a new phone. Fun times. The new devices are faster, hold more information, and more powerful. The phone has a pretty bomb camera and the computer has video editing capability only matched by super villains. Looks like I’m getting a macbook pro 15in and an iPhone 4S. The straw that broke that camel’s back was that both of my current devices (macbook and iPhone 4) ran out of disk space.
“WHAT? That’s like buying new clothes because you haven’t done laundry!” Yup. At least on the surface. Think about it this way: It’s a miracle that you can still sell my 3-year old computer for the ballpark of $600. Show me ANY PC that holds its value that well. My current computer still works great after 3 years and I should count my lucky stars for that and sell it while it’s still worth a lot. Kinda like the Jetta. It should hurt a little bit to sell it. At least then you know you can get a good chunk of cash for it and put that toward something you want that works well. Like an ‘06 vibe.
So here’s the auction on my computer. eBay is fun. Good times. Maybe I’ll sell my phone, too. Who knows. I was sort of thinking of keeping it just to have a backup or another camera. We’ll see.
Change change change. Also last night I did an open mic night at a local music venue. It was so fun. Oh man I miss being a band or otherwise musical group more than I thought. Last week I jammed twice with some friends and it was amazing. I LOVED it. I really feel alive when I’m rocking out. It’s so natural and happiness-causing.
Me likely music. I just discovered the joy that is Pandora for iPhone! It’s so awesome! It plays the music you like for free and even finds new stuff for you.
On a semi-related note my last two trips have had official theme songs. Song of the Trip in New York was Shiver by Coldplay. Don’t know why but this song was stuck in my head the whole trip and it was relevant in some cosmic way.
Not a bad tune. So I just got back from Chicago and Song of the Trip there was Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. It’s a girl artist and it’s a little more on the happy slappy side but whatever. For reasons unknown it was stuck in my head the whole trip so I had to listen to it over and over. The video is a little odd.
In other music news I got a piano!!!!!! AHHHHHH!H!H!HH!H!H Oh man I’m so pumped and I love!! It was roughly 1/2 the price of a new one but works perfectly! Gosh I’ve wanted a piano so bad for so long this is fantastic. Can’t wait to learn how to read music. And yes it’s the same one I posted about a while ago. It’s wonderful and now sits in my office. Mmmmmmmmm. I’m currently writing this blog post on my piano because I’m about to learn some musics from you tube and play them.
Do note that this fills the keyboard requirement in my life and not necessarily my full piano requirement. Though the 88 VERY nicely weighted keys are beautiful to handle, I pine for a Yamaha baby grand and will own one some day. Either that or a Steinway. Whatever works.
It came and went. Have you seen the movie though?! It’s awesome. Talk about a theatrical masterpiece aimed at improving the human condition. My roomate was watching it on netflicks last night and I couldn’t help but join. Can you imagine living the same day over and over like that? I think a lot of us would go through the same cycles as our friend Phil.
At first he succumbed to his most base instincts. Because he knew there would be no consequences he ate tons of sweets, smoked, drank, snubbed his friends, and seduced a pretty lady using information he gathered the previous day. He messed with people and was a slave to appetite.
Stepping up from the purely physiological to love and belonging, Phil then tries to convince his co-worker Rita to like him. He learns everything about her day by day and does well impersonating a perfect gentleman. This only leads to a stream of disparaging shut-downs. In agony Phil kills himself every day for about 2 weeks, each time waking up at 6am in the same bed to the same song.
I think it’s cool that he decides to improve himself after all that. I love how he changes in the movie. Cliche or lame or whatever I could watch it again and again. By the end of the movie he really cares about people. He learns Piano, French, ice-sculpture, and how to dance. Sooo way cool. Makes me want to get a piano.
I want this piano!!!
Yeah. New birthday preference for sure. This one is similar to the piano my sister had in Houston, TX. I loved that thing. It could make all kinds of different sounds plus it had drums built in and everything. Wannawannawanna. It could go in my kitchen in front of our whiteboard. Booyah.
Post Script: You must understand that my true and living desire is for a real piano. Yes, I realize this is really a glorified “keyboard”. I know, I know. Worry not, though, for a long long time I’ve wanted a black Yamaha baby grand. But somehow I’d be willing to do the Steinway thing if circumstances dictated, hmm.
Here’s a friend I made at a mini-convention on campus Parker Planners attended at BYU yesterday. It’s likely we’ll be working together in coming months.
Not too bad! Considering it’s one take and live, gotta give him credit.
In going through old stuff and organizing/throwing away, etc I came across some studio recordings from 17 North, the band I was in for a couple years as a teenager. It’s fun to remember those times. We practiced once a week and performed about twice a month. We recorded a 10-song original album and actually made some money. I played bass at first and then lead guitar at the end. We played at Hard Rock Cafe once.
I googled 17 North but not much came up. I did, however find a video of “The 17 North Band” that wasn’t us. Random. Something else that is weird- way back in 2002 I was in a Best Buy with my friend Patrick and he found this album:
We almost died laughing. I couldn’t believe that # 1 someone else’s band is named after a freeway!! (we all lived by I-17 in Phoenix) and # 2 they were GANGSTA RAP. Wow.
This post is a tribute to all bands with numbers and directions in their name.
There may be 17-North posts in the ‘music’ tab of the blog at some point.
And of course I’ll leave you with The 17-North Band in all their glory.
Here’s a video from last Friday. I went to an overnight training for a service organization I belong to. They had a little talent show and I probably wouldn’t have participated but they said the prize was $100! “Well shoot dang” methinks, “why don’t I give it a go?!”. I didn’t win but it was still tons of fun. You may remember the wig from Antoine Dodson’s infamous appearance on the interwebs. I didn’t know a girl from the audience was filming this and she kindly emailed me the footage. That explains the incompleteness.
I didn’t decide exactly what I was going to do until about 20 min before I went on stage, the wig and bandanna thing was pretty much improv.
Parker Planners